boyajian@akov68.DEC (JERRY BOYAJIAN) (09/05/85)
> From: mit-eddie!nessus (Doug Alan) > Oh, give me a break! That's a load of crap! How do you explain the > person I know who was a Pat Benetar fan, until he heard the original > "Wuthering Heights" on the radio, and then threw out all his Pat Benetar > albums? I can't explain that person, but so what? Personally, I'm not sure that I could take seriously as a reference anyone who'd throw out *all* of his Benetar albums just because he preferred Bush. I like both, but for very different reasons. My enjoyment of one has no effect on the other. >> First of all, Benetar (in my humble opinion) puts far more emotion >> into the song than Bush does. > > And 1 + 1 = 53, right? You call belting it out in typical programmed > heavy metal Benetar fashion putting emotion into it? I think that Kate > Bush puts more emotion into her voice than any other singer I've ever > heard. Only Peter Gabriel even comes close. This is one of the most > very important features of Kate's music! First of all, Benetar doesn't do heavy metal, unless your definition of heavy metal differs from everyone else's. Secondly, while she does "belt out" some of her songs, *I* don't believe that "Wuthering Heights" is one of them. >> Secondly, the lower register of Benetar's voice is much more >> palatable. > > Who wants "palatable" music? I want challenging music! Does one preclude the other? > [...] yes it is painful. Wonderfully painful and > wonderfully irritating! And that's what is so good about it. It is > sung that way, because Kate made the wonderful artistic choice of > singing it that way. The song is sung by the ghost of Cathy who has > come back from the dead to try and steal away Heathcliff's soul. It it > sung in a wailing, brittle, painful voice that so perfectly conjures up > the desperation and jealousy and hateful love of the ghost of Cathy. [...] > [But] it is butchered! It isn't different enough to be interesting. It > has all the wailing pain stripped from it. It has heavy metal guitar > riffs thrown in at all the wrong places for no good reason. Benetar has > her voice chorused in a manner totally inappropriate for the song -- it > destroys the intimacy. Some of the melody was rewritten in assinine > ways. Pat Benetar rewriting Kate Bush is tantamount to Sidney Sheldon > rewriting Shakespeare! Wait a minute. First you claim that it isn't different enough to be inter- esting, then you detail all of the differences you see in it. Are you trying to have your cake and eat it, too? I submit that Benetar's version *is* different. She's made it into a hopeful love song. *Maybe you don't agree with that interpretation, but that doesn't make it an invalid one*. I under- stand your interpretation of Bush's version. So Benetar chose to bring a feeling of hope to the song rather than pain. Why is that wrong? No, don't bother repeating yourself. What I'm getting at is that Bush already put one interpretation on it. Why can't Benetar trying something else? I don't quibble with your preference for Bush's version. that's your opinion and you're welcome to it. I just don't feel that Benetar "butchered" the song. Let me try something else as an example. Arlo Guthrie covered "City of New Orleans" by the late Steve Goodman. Now, I had not at that time heard Goodman do it himself. Still, I felt Guthrie's version was inappropriate --- he sang it at a slow, rambling tempo, when I felt that it should be more up tempo to suggest a train barreling down the track. There were other problems I had with Guthrie's version, but let's ignore them for now. Now, only last year did I finally hear a tape of Goodman doing the song, and damn if he didn't sing and play it at the tempo I thought it should be done. I prefer Goodman's version better than any other I've heard. So what's the "moral" of the story? That even though I found Arlo Guthrie's cover *wrong*, I still don't think he *butchered* it. And even though you might find Benetar's cover of "Wuthering Heights" wrong, I think "butchered" is too strong a term. And just to make your day, I thought I'd mention that in case you hadn't known, THE KICK INSIDE is available on CD. The Harvard Coop had it the last time I was there. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Acton-Nagog, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA
boyajian@akov68.DEC (JERRY BOYAJIAN) (09/05/85)
One thing I forgot to mention in my previous posting: > From: mit-eddie!nessus (Doug Alan) > Pat Benetar rewriting Kate Bush is tantamount to Sidney Sheldon > rewriting Shakespeare! I prefer to think of it as John Sturges (THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN) rewriting Akira Kurosawa (SEVEN SAMURAI). Or perhaps Cyril Hume (FORBIDDEN PLANET) rewriting Shakespeare (THE TEMPEST). --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Acton-Nagog, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA